Bucket List: 2019 Review and 2020 Plans

The Bucket List series of articles in this blog serve to highlight the personal Travel Bucket List items that I had achieved. This is meant to inspire the reader to create or expand his/her own Travel Bucket List

While I had achieved some items on my personal Travel Bucket List  over the past years, there are still many items in the list that remain to be fulfilled. On top of that, I am constantly adding to the list as I watch travel documentaries on cable, read about destinations in books and magazines as well as listening to the travel adventures of friends and acquaintances. 

Because I had limited resources to travel, there is no way I can ever achieve every single item on my Travel Bucket List  Completing the list is not the purpose here. The aim is to achieve some of the items on the list while admitting that many other items will sit on the list, never to be fulfilled. The "fulfilment" of these unfulfilled items will have to be achieved in other ways. Watching travel programmes, reading books and listening to travel tales from other travellers will have to suffice.

For the just concluded 2019, I had achieved the following in my Travel Bucket List.

• Crossed the Kintai-kyo Bridge on foot and climbed the stairs to the top of Iwakuni Castle in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.
• Visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial in Hiroshima, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
• Hiked around Miyajima Island, visited the Itsukushima Shrine and took a selfie in front of the Floating Torii Gate in Miyajima, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan.
• Traveled the length of South Korea by train from Seoul to Busan.
• Hiked and trekked around Tsushima Island, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan.
• Took a direct flight in Singapore Airlines' Business Class from Singapore to the United States.

Trekking in the forest areas of Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan (2019)

Enjoying my elaborate and delicious meal at 38,000 ft in the sky in Business Class onboard flight SQ28 flying direct from Singapore to Seattle, Washington, United States. (2019)

In my Travel Bucket List plans of 2020, these are the items that I hope to achieve this year.

• Experience views of wild Komodo Dragons at the Komodo National Park, Indonesia.
• Travel through the Japanese island of Kyushu, the south-western main island of Japan from Fukuoka to Beppu. A combination of train, ferry and self-drive to complete the trip in 12 days.
• Visit and enjoy a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany.
• Enjoy a river cruise down the River Danube in Budapest, Hungary.
• Embark on a cruise for the first time and sail from Singapore to Christmas Island, Australia.

And these are new items added to my travel bucket list which I hope to achieve some time in the future.

• Self-drive across Canada from Montreal to Toronto in autumn.
• Hiking the trails at the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States.
• Jungle trekking through the rainforest of Borneo in Sarawak, Malaysia.
• Swim and walk around in my birthday suit in a secluded and uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

12 months from now, I shall return to review my travel bucket list achievements of 2020. :-)